Examinithaka Poem by George Jaroszkiewicz

Examinithaka

(With apologies to C. P. Cavafy)

As you set out on your degree,
hope that your road is a long one,
full of friendship, full of self-development.

Hangovers, deadlines, angry Landlords
---do not be afraid of them:
you need not fear them on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.

Hangovers, deadlines, wild Landlords
---you needn't worry about them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope that your experience is a good one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter libraries you're seeing for the first time;

May you stop at University lecture rooms
to learn fine things,
set theory and calculus, number theory and vector spaces,
differential equations of every kind---
as many differential equations as you can solve;

And may you visit many examples classes
to learn and go on learning from your lecturers.

Keep your graduation always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so that you are wise by the time you reach the finals,
knowledgeable with all you've learned on the way,
not expecting the exams to be a walkover.

Your degree gave you the marvelous journey.
Without it you would not have set out.
There is nothing left to learn now.

And if you found the exams to be difficult, the results will not disappoint you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood, after the results,
what the exam solutions mean.